Conventional techniques for populating printed circuit boards (PCB) with a variety of component types, such as leadless, leaded through hole and surface mountable, require several process steps. Traditionally, different attachment techniques are used for each type of component.
Leaded components are frequently inserted into holes through the PCB. The assembly is then passed over a solder wave.
Surface mount attachment requires depositing solder loaded flux on the PCB component site, placing components on the PCB into the wet Solder paste, or using an adhesive to hold the component on the PCB drying the solder paste, reflowing the Solder paste, using vapor phase, infrared radiation (IR), or convection heat. The final step is cleaning using an appropriate solvent to remove flux and ionic residues.
When it is desired to have these two and/or additional types of components on the same circuit board the difficulty of reliably attaching each type in a sequence determined to avoid adverse effects on the joints for the other types becomes very difficult.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,515,304 issued to Berger illustrates a prior art method of mounting leaded and surface mountable components on the same printed circuit board. However, this reference teaches mounting the leaded components on one side by inserting their leads into through holes, crimping the lead ends, turning the board over, applying solder paste using individual applicator nozzles to the lead ends and to surface mount solder pads on the opposite side. The surface mountable components are then positioned and the whole board reflow soldered. It is indicated that the process may be repeated if it is desired to have surface mountable components on the same side as the leaded components.